KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Germantown

Hello, I am writing this review regarding your customer service. The food here is absolutely wonderful. I am a patron of many times.

however i am not sure if this employee was maybe having a bad day? or a bad night?? or maybe something is going on in her life to make her act the way she did tonight? 01-20th-2025

To begin with the tall blonde male host was super nice and welcoming, once he saw me waiting he was quick to acknowledge me.

However as soon as I had asked if they were still seating.... a short Hispanic young lady height 5 feet - 5'3 was eyeing me down, MEAN MUGGING ME LIKE CRAZY.

I am such a comprehending person, considering I am a manager in a 5 star restaurant and have been a server / bartender for 8 plus years before I got promoted.

I was so confused as to why she was looking at me that way?

I asked her is there a problem? why are you looking at me like that? she said they were closed.... the male at the front (host) told me well were TECHNICALLY NOT CLOSED but had decided to shut down early because they were super slow.

I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND THAT DUE TO SLOW TRAFFIC A STORE SHUTTING DOWN A LITTLE BIT EARLY OK... sounds good no issue

but the way the Hispanic woman working January 20th at closing time spoke to me was absolutely a terrible customer service experience.

Managers, I understand you will stand by your staff no matter what and like I said, this young lady was probably having a bad day and lost her cool, however, if you choose to close an hour earlier than your scheduled time on Google, please update your time and/or turn off the light that says YOU ARE OPEN ON YOUR FRONT DOOR. thank you.

ONLINE it says you close at 10:30. I showed up at 9:30 pm. again, OK ,you closed an hour early due to slow traffic.. for a small business place i understand. even the manager told me "hey were slow today we closed at 9:30pm" and that was even after the young Hispanic woman was super disrespectful towards me.

I was not going to eat much, I just wanted some bulgogi.

To the young woman who was closing January 20th and decided to be disrespectful to a customer that did not know your store had decided to close early...

Please treat people with better respect. I understand respect is not given but earned.. however I had given you absolutely no reason for you to talk to me/look at me the way you did before you decided to walk out while i was in the middle of speaking to you.

To the manager and young blonde guy that were kind to me closing January 20th ... thank you for being respectful in the way you told me that news.

Please correct the young ladies attitude and demeanor towards guests that are willing to pay and tip, because that was 100%...

Food, service, and atmosphere is great but one of the policies was a bit ridiculous. I called to try to setup a nice dinner with friends and family this weekend to celebrate my birthday and asked about the birthday special deal they have(Birthday person eats free when in a party of 4 or more). I wanted to schedule it for the coming weekend since the weather today(my birthday) was particularly nasty(for context, schools shut down early due to high winds, heavy rain, and potential power outages). Spoke to the manager and he mentioned that they will not honor the birthday special other than the actual birthday. Normally I would consider this reasonable but, due to the circumstances I would have hoped that this would be overlooked. The manager did not budge nor did he seem to care about the circumstance stating that if they did this, most people would want to have birthdays on the weekends only. The premise of this response was short sighted in the business world and I advise the owners to take a close look at who they have in place as a manager. In my opinion, this is a terrible approach to customer service and a very disappointing response to a reasonable request.

*Update I sent an email as requested and sent the following: Please note, I have already made alternative plans and reservations at a different restaurant. I do not require nor desire any compensation. This experience will not deter me from visiting again but as mentioned I was disappointed in the manager's stubbornness and lack of customer service ability.I would like to add that the last time I visited with friends, since there was a bit of a wait, we wanted to sit at the bar to order and enjoy drinks. We were asked not to sit at the bar and to move over to the waiting area with our drinks. The manager explained this was to keep the bar open to customers who wanted to eat at the bar. We complied but found this to be a bit ridiculous.

It is my personal opinion that the restaurant policies be reviewed and your management be retrained in order to be a bit more customer service oriented.

I hope my email to you was objective and is helpful for your business to be successful.

Sincerely, -Albert Lee

They have yet to acknowledge even...

Since coming back from South Korea, where I lived for two years, I've been direly missing many Korean food that I've come to enjoy during my stay. So, I've pounced on every store that sells Korean foods and visited every Korean restaurant. I believe that, for Korean BBQ, this place hits the mask very closely with the style of food and the atmosphere that I've come to love in Korea.

And while most 고기구이 (gogi-gui) places in Korea aren't nearly as fancy or modern looking as KPot, this isn't a dingable offense to me, as I've learned that the restaurant can either look like a basic shack (like so many places I've seen in Korea) or a modern wonder like KPot, it's the quality of the food and its sides that's important. The only other thing that is not authentic is the size of the drink glasses (in my experience, Koreans usually don't drink much during their meal, unless it's soju; it's more common for them to drink Americano coffee after their meal) and the size of the napkins, both of which are for some reason or another are half the size we'd expect in the States. But, as an American, I've come to expect and appreciate these differences.

Speaking of the sides, I actually would like to see more authentic sides be included with the Korean BBQ portion of the place. If you want quail eggs and gyoza (though mandu is more common in 고기구이 places) with your Korean BBQ, you'll need to get the Hot Pot with it (for only $5 more, which honestly isn't too bad). Kimchi is always available via the sauce and condiments bar in the back, so that's a plus if you like that.

As for the hot pot side (which, fun fact, is Chinese, not Korean, yet there are MANY hot pot places in Korea, so it does still fit with the atmosphere of KPot) of things, I didn't have that this go around but I HIGHLY recommend it. The broths are exquisite and true to what anyone familiar with Chinese hot pot would expect to have. And the sides and meats you can put in your hot pot are just perfect.

All in all, a truly amazing place and it's my new go-to place to get my fix on Korean BBQ...